Assignment Three: In-class studio portraits!

Last week in class I had the opportunity to do my first studio lighting set-up and photo shoot with my team in class. It was so much fun! Here is a sampling of the photos I took of Christina. With the first set of photos, we chose dramatic lighting to represent a "crazy" feeling. In the second, we were aiming for a conservative theme and took more traditional style portraits. I chose 5 of each to post to my blog and share with the class.

Assignment Two: Self-Portraits

All About Me: Or, all about my life in New York over the past few weeks..
I moved to New York in January. I lived in San Francisco, California for the past 5 years. Before that, I lived in San Jose, CA, London, Montreal, Boston and an assortment of small towns in between. I have now moved 21 times, and am living at my 21st postal address. I didn't intend to, but I guess I have somehow become a bit of a wanderer. I pack, travel, move, and unpack. I sell my furniture, hire movers, get new furniture, buy plane tickets, and find new apartments.

My new living room: 5x5 and orange
This time, I am living at my parents house until I figure out the next spot on my wandering journey. And I've put most of what I didn't sell into a small 5x5 storage unit in Yonkers. This transition is a bit uncomfortable. I often look for something, and realize it's in a box. So, I go get it. It's like having an extra big closet with a lock in a 24 hour surveillance building next to a gas station. Here I find my photos of life before today, 11 boxes of books from undergrad, grad school, and everything in between. All my summer clothes and flips flops. Who knows where I'll end up next. But for now, I am in New York.


Commuting to the City
Each day I take the train into Manhattan to go to work. I have to admit, going to work to spend the day at my desk is not my favorite activity. And as I wait outside at the train station each morning, I think of all the other things I could be doing, and plot my escape. And I think my self-portraits at the train station, which all show a rather anguished look on my face (which I didn't do on purpose), convey exactly how I feel about it.


Identity: Past, Present, Future
This photo is a self-portrait of photos other people have taken of me throughout my life, and a few I've taken. I think my identity is a culmination of many small moments and many periods of life, all vastly different from the period before. Here I am 29, looking back at moments captured of me as a small girl, a teenager and an adult.

Assignment One: My favorite portraits

These 4 portraits are from an outside portrait session I did with a friend in California this past July. I had a portrait assignment for an introduction to photography course I took, and I asked Helen if I could take her photo. We spent an hour walking around on a hillside near our office in Mountain View, California, and it was a windy day. I like these portraits because they really captured Helen's light spirit, as well as the "shifting directions" in her life at the time. I also liked how the wind became a central element of some of the photos.